Mona Lisa
Kuala Lumpur
Jason's verdict
- Stops
- 1
- Dishes
- 4
- Visits
- 1
The verdict
GreatJason verdicts this KL steakhouse as a worthwhile celebration splurge rather than a cash grab, with the truffle scallop and 300g Australian wagyu as the stars. The beef tartare falls flat and the gold leaf is pure gimmick, but the core cooking is excellent.
Highlights
- Price: RM68 brioche toast, RM88 tartare, RM280 wagyu - a celebration-level bill
- Taste: Juicy charred scallop with earthy truffle and tender, consistently cooked wagyu; tartare loses the beef richness
- Ambiance: Upscale Salt Bae-style steakhouse with gold leaf theatrics, pitched as an anniversary spot
- Other: The gold leaf tastes like absolutely nothing - pure gimmick
Dishes tried
- Wagyu brioche toastScore 8.5 out of 10
salty, earthy, crunchy yet creamy; worth it for celebrations
- Wagyu beef tartareScore 5.8 out of 10
cold with pickle sourness and caviar salt, but beef richness gets lost
- Scallop truffleScore 9.2 out of 10
juiciest, freshest scallop he has had, charred with earthy truffle sauce
- Australian wagyu with gold leafScore 8.3 out of 10
300g medium, tender with good marbling; gold leaf adds nothing
Full transcript398 words
I tried this wagyu steak for 280 ringgit. From Grabs New York Strip to Maui Salon Steak. This place, Mona Lisa, is my third steak stock. I hope the steak is more real than this. Burris cash grab or our future 5th anniversary makan spot? Wagra brioche toast. When you bite inside, it's almost creamy. So when you eat it all together, you get this salty, earthy, lightly crunchy, creamy flavour, it's so hard to explain. 68 ringgit, close one eye, think that it's for your celebration, 8.5. Wagyu beef tartar for 88 ringgit. It does come with caviar, also comes with the brioche. It's meant to be a cold dish so it tastes like a cold smashed beef burger patty that has the sourness from the pickle, the saltiness from the caviar. Brioche is thin and crispy but the way it's mashed up like this, you cannot really taste the richness of that beef flavour 5.8. Scallop truffle. I have never eaten scallop this juicy, this fresh, this well marinated. And this big, it's slightly charred on the surface and you get that grilled barbecue flavour that mixes so well with the earthiness from the truffle sauce. So plump. That's when you know. And the sauces around, very nice but it's the support for how fresh and delicious this scallop is. Wah 9.2. This is the one we've been waiting for, the 280 ringgit Australian Wagyu with a freaking gold leaf medium doneness without the sauces. This is definitely one of the more tender, medium cooked beef. The marbling of the fats that are on the carts, they help with the flavour and that's what I like about steaks like this. Sometimes the steak, their fats right? It's too chewy and it tastes too raw. What does the gold leaf even taste like? Absolutely nothing. Black pepper mushroom sauce. Tastes like IKEA meatball sauce. Yeah. And I mean it in a good way. The flavours are turned up to 11. Salt Bae. My experience, one of the purer beef tastes you get that is not overly marinated and sauced up that you don't feel the richness of the beef. For 300 grams, I really cannot find much problems with it. The way it's cooked is good, consistent throughout the whole steak. Only thing is the gold leaf. If it's just for sure I don't like it, 8.3.
RM400-500 · Scallop truffle